Read a full match report for the Six Nations game between Wales and Scotland
at the Millenium Stadium, Cardiff, on Saturday, March 15 2014

A Six Nations match that was supposed to be meaningless earned its place in Championship folkore when, after watching the replay on the Millennium Stadium’s giant screen, Jérôme Garces called back Stuart Hogg and upgraded a yellow card to a sending-off.

The Scotland full-back’s lunacy in his late hit on Dan Biggar and the French referee’s belated, but brave decision essentially killed this game as a contest with George North and the rest of the rampant Welsh mercilessly capitalising on the extra man to run in seven tries.

The game did finish on a worrying note for Wales, however, when Sam Warburton was found to have dislocated his shoulder. The captain will on Sunday have a scan but as it is the same injury suffered last week by Leigh Halfpenny, Warburton might also require an operation and four months on the sidelines, meaning he, too, would miss the summer tour to South Africa.

At least Warburton would have this record-breaking win to wrest third place in the Six Nations to console him during any down months. This was Scotland’s biggest defeat in the history of the Championship and a cruel way in which to bow out of a tournament which boasted few highs. Yes, Garces’s actions were unprececented and did not exactly follow strict protocol, but few would argue. Scott Johnson, Scotland’s coach, refused to question the official.

“The judicial matter, I’ll leave with other people - he’s a good referee,” Johnson said. “Stuart’s feeling like he’s let the boys down. He’s in a dark place but will have to confront it.”

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Indeed, Hogg will - in front of a disciplinary panel. It was in the 23rd minute when Biggar put up a garryowen and Hogg charged in with a shoulder check which was as dangerous as it was late. Garces was soon to recognise the full extent of the brutality to Biggar’s chin. Hogg had only just left the pitch when he was summoned back to be told not to bother coming back.

“I wasn’t surprised the referee changed his mind,” Warren Gatland, the Wales coach, said. “We’d actually got the message on to [captain] Sam Warburton to ask him to review the decision, but he hadn’t even got to the referee by the time he saw the replay and changed his verdict.”

It was Scotland’s first dismissal since Scott Murray in 2006, which intriguingly was at the same venue.

Biggar’s body slammed the turf with frightening force, but the No 10 courageously rose to slot home the 40-yard penalty and from them on the scoreboard clicked with inevitable regularity. Wales had weathered early Scottish promises and carved their lead, thanks to the man of the match Liam Williams, who latched on to Biggar’s pass to score his first international try.

With the Welsh forwards having sucked in so many players that was 'Warrenball' at its finest. Yet from there on was to be no need for what some still insist on portraying as Gatland’s negative game plan. Wales hammered at the Scottish backline, scoring a quartet of tries in less than 25 minutes. North scored two, as did Jamie Roberts, but it was Halfpenny’s replacement Williams whose creativity stole the show.

North’s first try came from a brilliant take and offload from the young Scarlets full-back which set up the devastating wing to do his thing on the half-hour mark and Roberts’s second arrived eight minutes after the break when Williams launched a thrilling counter-attack, again featuring a brilliant offload.

And when Toby Faletau - the No 8 who together with Alun-Wyn Jones and Warburton were so effective in the loose - ran under the posts in the 53rd minute the score was 44-3 and extreme embarrassment beckoned for Scotland.

Credit to the visitors they dug deep and managed to stall the onslaught.

They might even have scored a try for themselves - at the same time as sending Shaun Edwards, the home defence coach, into a frenzy - when they came within a lunge of the try-line, but, for some reason, Duncan Weir decided to kick the ball beyond the debut wing Dougie Fife.

Five minutes before the end, the replacement scrum-half, Rhodri Williams, applied the necessaries to Jonathan Davies's grubber to send the score past the half-century mark. It was no way for Johnson to sign off as head coach before he moves upstairs to make way for Vern Cotter.